Digital product passport

The story behind fashion supply chains and underrepresented communities is the title of the special event we organized during the Berlin Fashion Summit.

202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit

A few weeks ago, from 5th to 7th September, our Head of Sustainability, Martina Schiuma, was in Berlin to participate in 202030 – The Berlin Fashion Summit.

The Berlin Fashion Summit is Germany’s most progressive platform for the cross-disciplinary discourse and matchmaking between avant-garde creatives, pragmatic researchers, and smart industry stakeholders.

With this platform, they aim to:

• Enable the critical & constructive discourse between all relevant stakeholders;
• Foster new alliances and working relationships that set regeneration and net positive impact as their primary goals for the future of fashion;
• Create equity in the fashion culture by uplifting diverse, marginalized perspectives.

Alongside Francesca Rulli, CEO at Process Factory Srl and Co-founder and CEO at Ympact, Martina was on stage being interviewed about the traceability solution of The ID Factory to make fashion and luxury brands gain transparency along their value chains.

The fashion psychologist you didn’t know you needed

Have you ever thought you needed a fashion psychologist?

Someone who doesn’t tell you “you have a problem”, but someone who offers you the tools to dive deeper into your fashion company, through your fragmented supply chain, and find the critical issues to solve.

The comparison is a bit curious and new, but this is what we do at The ID Factory when it comes to traceability and transparency.

This is what Martina Schiuma said on the stage of The Berlin Fashion Summit.

Since a fashion psychologist is an expert who follows you along a path that lasts according to your needs, we thought that The Berlin Fashion Summit was the right opportunity to dive deeper into the topic, flanked by other professionals who could contribute and enrich the conversation.

Digital product passport: the story behind fashion supply chains and underrepresented communities – The event

For this reason, at the end of the Berlin Fashion Summit, we decided to organize a free event by invitation only entitled “Digital product passport: the story behind fashion supply chains and underrepresented communities”.

The event was kindly hosted in the splendid setting of the Adidas Green Lab, in the Adidas flagship store in Berlin.

Together with Martina Schiuma, there hosts were Martina Offeh, ex-Apple, speaker and founder of ASHES AND SOIL, and Julia Rabello, Chief of Brand at WeDress Collective, a P2P fashion rental collective that enables members (private individuals & fashion brands) to lend & rent fashion & accessories, securely and in seconds.

After the amazing experience we had in June with the WeDress Collective team, we are beyond thrilled to organize another inspiring discussion talk about why tracing fashion supply chains matters.

The main topics

Every item has a story behind it to tell. But how can we express this story and make the people and the communities behind it the true protagonists?

How can we share the story and the traceability behind the clothes we buy naturally and engagingly?

The topics on which the event was based were:

➜ What is the purpose of digitizing fashion? And how does it relate to underrepresented communities?
➜ Fashion supply chain traceability and transparency: problems and opportunities.
➜ What is the role of the Digital ID?
➜ Responsible consumption and customer engagement.

The speakers discussed the purpose of digitizing fashion and how the digital product passport can bring more traceability and transparency to the industry. As professionals, we have the power to boost supply chain transparency through technology, and as shoppers to wear the impact we want to see around the world.

Furthermore, together with Adidas Green Lab, Martina Schiuma, Martina Offeh, and Julia Rabello discussed the role of technology and the creation of a Digital Product Passport as a communication tool for:

• supporting sustainable education;
• empowering traceability;
• giving a voice to the underrepresented communities.

Conclusion

The event’s ultimate goal was to answer a complex and exciting question: how can we make people enjoy more traceable and sustainable fashion?

Here are the main takeaways that we took home at the end of the event.

➜ Working hard on education and innovation;
➜ Sharing more product traceability info and impact stories;
➜ Reusing and repurposing deadstock and waste;
➜ Clothes swap near you.

Final thanks

Although the notice was short and the event reserved for a few people, we would like to personally thank all those who intervened and took part in the conversation:

Adidas green lab – Cheryl White
ABOUT YOU – Liz Valentina Thieme
ASHES AND SOIL – Martina Offeh
H&M Beyond – Anne Wolthaus, Timo Wolf, Anna Rostamkhani
WeDress Collective – Julia Rabello
Ward’ROBE Affaire – Ivana Perbi-Ohlheiser
PURENESSITY – Robert Gierke

What’s next?

Do you work in fashion, deal with sustainable solutions or believe that technology can help the fashion industry to become more responsible? Keep following us on the blog or LinkedIn to not miss the upcoming events.

If you want to propose one, write us an email at info@theidfactory.com.